A look at new Pacers GM Chad Buchanan’s track record
According to a report from The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Pacers have hired Chad Buchanan to be their new general manager.
The Pacers have filled their front office opening, hiring Chad Buchanan away from the Charlotte Hornets. Buchanan worked under Kevin Pritchard with the Portland Trail Blazers from 2007-2010, starting as a scout and rising all the way to interim GM before the Blazers hired Neil Olshey in 2012.
More recently, Buchanan served as the assistant general manager for the Charlotte Hornets, reporting to Rich Cho.
Buchanan has been working in NBA front offices for over a decade, and naturally has been involved in some fairly significant transactions in that time. Let’s go through a few of them to get an idea of who is joining the Pacers staff.
Track Record
Let’s start with arguably the flashiest deal in Buchanan’s career. As interim GM of the Blazers during the 2011-2012 season, Buchanan traded Gerald Wallace to the New Jersey Nets for Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams and the Nets’ top-three protected 2012 first-round pick.
That pick ended up being No. 6 in the 2012 draft and became Damian Lillard, obviously a steal for Portland in hindsight. For Billy King, the Nets GM at the time, things would get much, much worse.
Buchanan also began the process of constructing the Blazers roster that would make the playoffs in 2014 after a long draft. He got the pick that would become Lillard, but he also signed Wesley Matthews to what became a value contract before Matthews tore his ACL right at the end of it. Matthews was the starting shooting guard for that playoff team.
Charlotte Hornets 2015-2017
Buchanan started working for the Hornets in 2015, and it’s unclear how instrumental he was in the front office’s decision-making during his tenure. The Hornets certainly haven’t been poorly managed in recent years, although things haven’t been terrific either.
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They traded Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh to Portland for Nic Batum, who they then signed to a lucrative deal in the summer of 2016. Reasonable people can disagree over the merits of those transactions, but I think it was a good move at the time. Batum had a disappointing 2016-2017 season, but I think he’s capable of bouncing back.
They chose not to top the Pacers offer to Al Jefferson, and one year later that’s looking very shrewd. I’d be very surprised if there’s a bounce back for Big Al.
Marvin Williams is definitely being overpaid in Charlotte. Rich Cho and Buchanan signed Williams to a four-year $54 million deal in the summer of 2016 after he shot 40 percent from 3 the prior season. (2016 wasn’t a great summer for these guys, but frankly, who was it a good summer for?)
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- 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
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This year, Williams regressed back to his career averages in most statistical categories, leading The Ringer’s Jason Concepcion to write a column titled “The Marvin Williams All-Stars.” The team consisted of guys who crushed it in a contract year and managed to swindle their teams in to paying them way more than they were worth.
I don’t blame the Charlotte front office too much for the summer of 2016. Contracts were crazily inflated because of the salary cap spike, and I’m sure there was pressure to keep the team together after their impressive 48-win season.
Finally, there was the Dwight Howard trade that went down just two days before this year’s draft. The Hawks traded Howard and the No. 31 pick for Marco Belinelli and the No. 41 pick. On the surface, the trade looks like a slam dunk for Charlotte. They’ll be capped out next summer, but the 2018 free agent class looks fairly dismal at the moment, and Howard will be off the books by the time they need to properly pay Kemba Walker.
If Howard becomes a toxic locker room presence like in Los Angeles and Houston, that might change the favorability of the trade.
Conclusion
Overall, I think Chad Buchanan will be a good, not great, addition to the Pacers front office. His most important attribute is clearly his relationship with Kevin Pritchard. The two reportedly grew very close in Portland and share many of the same views regarding talent evaluation and roster construction. Having a front office on the same page already puts you a leg up over a lot of other teams.
Next: Four free agent wings the Pacers should target
Buchanan is coming on board at a very crucial time for the Pacers. Let’s hope he and Kevin Pritchard can make some magic happen together.